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Western classical education reduced to assembly lines
By Fernando Bensuaski |
June 17, 2011, Friday
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DEAR Mr Wan Lixin,
YOU are absolutely correct in your statements that "today's universities are almost exclusively focused on turning out graduates programmed for a special type of job," and "that is a shadow of what education was supposed to do in the beginning, East or West." ("Diploma mills lose sight of the purpose of education," June 1)
However, education at the beginning was exclusive to the wealthy. In the beginning (at least a reasonable beginning) you have Confucius in the East and we have Socrates in the West.
They both lived around 500 BC, neither left anything in writing, both were highly influential via their disciples, and both taught those who did not have to earn a living or did not care one way or the other.
Western civilization sits on top of three pillars: Judaism, Greek philosophy, and the Christian religion (essentially, the writings of Paul, since Christ did not leave anything in writing either). At my baccalaureate the valedictorian speech was delivered by John Luik, a brilliant Rhodes Scholar who finished his oration with the perfect sentence: "And I am thankful that the college has given me not only the tools to make a living but also the moral norms on how to apply such tools."
This is classical education at its best; and in the Western world, this was the product of a religious school, whether Sacred Heart or Harvard.
In each pillar, education started as the transmission of norms: from Socrates to Plato, from Hillel to Paul, and so on (Judaism carried this master-to-pupil model from around 1270 BC to around 200 AD, when the rabbis wrote down the oral law and tradition, the Talmud). The tools were acquired elsewhere, if needed.
But the Industrial Revolution and the inevitable rise of the middle class led to the creation of the technical universities, first in Germany and then, in its present form, in the United States.
These universities forgot or ignored the norms and morals and ethics, and other things that make a man a Man.
Be well and continue to wave the Confucius banner.
Fernando Bensuaski
Shanghai
YOU are absolutely correct in your statements that "today's universities are almost exclusively focused on turning out graduates programmed for a special type of job," and "that is a shadow of what education was supposed to do in the beginning, East or West." ("Diploma mills lose sight of the purpose of education," June 1)
However, education at the beginning was exclusive to the wealthy. In the beginning (at least a reasonable beginning) you have Confucius in the East and we have Socrates in the West.
They both lived around 500 BC, neither left anything in writing, both were highly influential via their disciples, and both taught those who did not have to earn a living or did not care one way or the other.
Western civilization sits on top of three pillars: Judaism, Greek philosophy, and the Christian religion (essentially, the writings of Paul, since Christ did not leave anything in writing either). At my baccalaureate the valedictorian speech was delivered by John Luik, a brilliant Rhodes Scholar who finished his oration with the perfect sentence: "And I am thankful that the college has given me not only the tools to make a living but also the moral norms on how to apply such tools."
This is classical education at its best; and in the Western world, this was the product of a religious school, whether Sacred Heart or Harvard.
In each pillar, education started as the transmission of norms: from Socrates to Plato, from Hillel to Paul, and so on (Judaism carried this master-to-pupil model from around 1270 BC to around 200 AD, when the rabbis wrote down the oral law and tradition, the Talmud). The tools were acquired elsewhere, if needed.
But the Industrial Revolution and the inevitable rise of the middle class led to the creation of the technical universities, first in Germany and then, in its present form, in the United States.
These universities forgot or ignored the norms and morals and ethics, and other things that make a man a Man.
Be well and continue to wave the Confucius banner.
Fernando Bensuaski
Shanghai
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